Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

This is Jacob...

or Andy.

[Depending on who you ask]

Jeremy & Jacob caught him about two weeks ago

when I was at work one day.

He's adapted quite well to our family.
We've made the transition as easy as possible.

[lights,

crickets,

& a nice, big home]

Jacob, quite originally, named the lizard Jacob.

When he's not around,

Jeremy and I call him Andy, short for anole, which is what he is.

Organizing the Spice Cabinet

Don't we live the exciting life?

This is what we are excited about, after all,

on this fine Saturday morning.

This is what our spice cabinet has looked like for the

last three weeks that we've lived in the condo:

If you'll remember, we built a spice rack at the apartment.

[Have no fear, I'll still be using it here.]

Anyway... we have enough cabinets at this condo to store the

spices in one of them. But, it needed some help

on the organization front.

I checked Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond and the shelves

there were super cheap. But, if you look at the picture above,

that shelf has a big ol' vent running straight through the middle.

As a result, the shelves from the store wouldn't fit.

So, the boy and I got to thinking.

We knew the project didn't need to be overly expensive or involved.

In fact, we [Jacob] already had the wood we could use.

We cut the wood last night but decided it was a little late in

the evening to be hammering nails into it. 

But we got straight to work today.

We ended up with this:

Kind of cute, huh?

And now our spice cabinet looks like this:

Like I said a couple posts ago,

it really is the little things. [Read: the free things in this situation]

Coming soon: Meet Jacob/Andy the lizard.

& hopefully more projects if the budget allows.

Condo: Master Bathroom Shelves

I have an assignment for all of you:

Tell me what to do with these shelves.

They're located in my bathroom & I'm sure they

could be made into something absolutely adorable.

What I would prefer, though, is something absolutely

adorable that also stores lots of stuff.

[Such as the boy's hats, our belts & other accesories]

And and all suggestions are welcome.

Condo: The little things

It really is the little things, folks.

The condo is becoming more and more like a home for us

and, more importantly, more liveable every day.

& it's the small things that are helping us get there.

[For graduation, I was given an amazing number of Target gift cards. I'm loved]

So, Jeremy and I have, little by little, been accumulating these small things that help us.

For starters, we really needed some type of towel hook. There was no decent place to hang towels near our shower where we could reach them after taking a shower. Jeremy knew of these special command hook tape hooks and they work perfectly for our bathroom.

Hand soap.

Just plain necessary folks.

Especially when it's in a cute bottle.

[Thanks for the idea, Jill!]

 We finally put the big TV int he living room.

Finally, I can see my closet floor!

Why were we so behind on laundry, you ask?

Because we couldn't run our washer & dryer without our entire condo losing electricity.

It was a major issue, but, it's fixed! And I've been a laundry cleanin' fool.

Until next time,

Graduation

It really happened, y'all.

Photos coming soon [when I can gather them

from the various individuals that were

nice enough to take pictures of the events].

Condo: Day 5

Alrighty y'all, here's some progress for you...

It's not much (and it's slightly delayed) due to me having

finals this week and wrapping up that thing they call college.

But guess what?

I'M DONE!

That's right... I will graduate TOMORROW with my

Bachelor's of Science in

Broadcast Journalism & Political Science.

[Yeah, let's see if I ever use either, but regardless...]

YAY!!!

My Gramma flew in yesterday afternoon.

My best friend & her family got in last night.

I'm about to head to the airport and pick up more family.

Life is good. And I'm ready to celebrate.

Anyway, like I said, it's not much, but it's noticeable.

The dining area:

 The living room:

 The kitchen:

[Currently my absolute favorite part of the condo]

 Jacob's room:

Master bedroom:

[Fiance was watching Salt] 

However, most of what we've done is actually organization, so...

Here's the top of Jacob's closet full of

Christmas decorations (in the pink tubs) & my old dance costumes

Our closet:

 [Continued]

 [More]

My absolute favorite part of the kitchen:

These pictures do not do this corner cabinet justice.

It's just so ridiculously roomy!

So, I made it my baking cabinet, of course.

[No, I'm not spoiled, thanks for asking.]

Anyway, more progress soon I'm sure,

but I'm off to celebrate with my family & friends

oh, and GRADUATE!

Condo: Day 1

Alright: Progress thus far.

I decided to do this post room by room...

So, here's the living & dining rooms when the day started:

 This is after the boy and I got to work distributing furniture and storing certain items rarely needed (Christmas decor, luggage, etc.) in Jacob's second closet.

Looking better, huh?

[Kayden is shaking his tailfeather here.]

 Unfortunately, not nearly as much progress was made on the other half of this area...

Have I mentioned I love my new appliances?

I love my new appliances.

 The kitchen got cleared out a bit so I could cook dinner.

[First meal at the new place: Poppy Seed Chicken]

We also had our first guests: Jeremy's parents

They didn't stay long, though.

We set up the big TV in our bedroom to watch a "family movie" as Jacob calls it (the living room just isn't comfortable yet). Never mind the fact that he's most likely attacking his dad in this shot.

My fiance being lazy.

His son doing "office work."

And... the room with the most improvement today...

Jacob's room

I love the way this construction fence turned out!

The best part? It was free. Jeremy already had it.

Jacob will obviously eventually have a bed. Give us time.

In the mean time, he's pretty obsessed with this one.

I just had to find a multi-colored alarm clock.

Fortunately, they were like $6 at Target.

We set up the construction fence so that he would have to tear it down to get to it.

Here is Jacob coming into the condo [& his bedroom] for the first time.

& here is Jacob's room after he broke it in a little bit...

Coming tomorrow [hopefully]: More progress!